Haven't I Been Here Before?

In a way, yes, I have. This is round two of airbrushing this board. With the hotcoat sanded you can really see all the crystallization areas, and it looks really ugly. So on Friday I painted it again.

There it is with the first coat. The paint covers so much better on a non porous surface like the fiberglass, as opposed to the extremely porous surface of the foam. I mixed up a lot less paint this time, and had a lot more left over. If there are no problems with the gloss because of this method, either in the glossing process or with delam in the future, this may be the way to go for full color boards, as it was quicker, cheaper, and you don't have to worry about nicking the colored foam.

I got the color pretty close to the other one, but it didn't matter so much because it's going completely over it. The match looked pretty good once on the board.

Here's the painted board. Painting over the hotcoat really gets a deep color. I'm curious to see how the gloss takes to the paint. I was considering a number of methods of doing the next coat: A) Using the acrylic surfboard sealer and polish I bought from Fiberglass Supply. It brushes on, has UV inhibitor in it, dries clear, and saves the weight of a gloss coat. While this seems like a pretty good idea, I read on, you guessed it, Swaylock's that it really doesn't last as long as a gloss. Some people say that within three months of regular use one will start to notice problems. On one hand, it might be good for this board, since it's not designed for everyday New Jersey waves, it won't be getting used all the time. Or maybe it will. Who knows. Also, the fact that it's acrylic means I probably wouldn't have any problems bonding with the acrylic paint. On the other hand, saving weight on this board isn't as crucial as on, say, a regular shortboard, so why not just use gloss? B) Seal the paint with a light spray of Acrylic Future Floor Polish before gloss. This has its benefits, but if there are no problems, then I'll never know if just the gloss alone would have been fine, and that brings me to C) just a gloss coat straight over the paint. I have decided I am going to do this on the deck first, where if there are any problems at least there is the possibility of wax coverage. Then, if that works, I'll do it on the bottom, but if there are problems then I'll probably seal the bottom with the Future before I gloss it.

So, with that said, I think I'm going to take the board out of the curing room in a few, get the temperature up in the garage, and gloss it. Even if things get messed up, it looks like I still have some time before the next swell, because that bump in the surf forecast, which as of last night showed 5-6 foot building Saturday night, has since flatlined and now the weekend forecast looks the same as it has been and will be forever.

 

 

 

The Barnegat Bay in the Winter, or, why I love this place so much.